Mitt Romney Is First Presidential Candidate to Qualify for Kentucky’s Primary

by Kenny Colston on January 23, 2012

Kentucky’s presidential primary is months away and tends to serve little purpose in selecting a major party nominee. But that doesn’t mean the event is being ignored.

At least one presidential hopeful is in front of the pack in Kentucky: Mitt Romney. The Republican frontrunner is the only candidate to have filed to run in the state’s primary so far.

Romney qualified for the ballot by showing he qualified in more than twenty other states, which is one of four ways Kentucky allows presidential ballot access.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes says other big names have called about the primary as well.

“We have been contacted by President Obama’s campaign regarding the procedure to obtain ballot access,” she says. “We provided them with the necessary paperwork just as we have any other calls that we received. We received calls from Newt Gingrich’s campaign as well. But as I said we field tons of calls daily and some calls identify themselves, others don’t.”

Romney’s records show he also filed in neighboring Ohio, Tennessee andVirginia. But he hasnt yet filed in any other states with May primaries, making Kentucky the first for presidential politics in at least one category. ’

Grimes isn’t sure if Ron Paul, father of Kentucky’s junior senator Rand Paul, had told his campaign to call. She said no one from the Paul campaign identified themselves when calling, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t.

Kentucky hasn’t had an effect on presidential politics since 1988, when it had an earlier primary. The General Assembly moved the primary to May—when legislative offices are on the ballot—as a cost-cutting move.

Grimes says it would be up to lawmakers to move the primaries around again.